wow, I haven't updated in forever!  let's see, whats been going on in my life since September?  I've worked at BiLo's alot, responded to a couple FD calls here & there, worked alot on homework & projects for WCU, and oh yeah, I saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to Geico!  (not really).  I have been really busy lately.  Emergency Management keeps me so busy.  Our teacher has given us research paper after research paper.  I'll just skip the past month & a half's events & start with today. 

I woke up about 8am & started working on yet another EM essay.  It took me forever to get done, but luckily I finally got it done late this evening.  Thanks for all the prayers, they really helped!  I've pretty much been here in front of this computer about all day, working on papers, FEMA courses and my photo album.  Pretty uneventful day today huh? lol  Yeah, I sure hope tommorrow will be more eventful.  I've got class all day, from 930-315, then I'm probably gonna head to Central to work on more projects with matt & christina.  hopefully I'll get done early, because some family friends are cooking dinner for my family tommorrow night.  If I dont make it, I won't be too worried, there's always leftovers, haha.  I'm finally finding some Christian friends on campus, which is defenitely an answer to prayers.  God never fails to amaze me.  He's got a perfect time schedule for everything to occur and everything always works out for good.  Aren't you glad God didn't give you your every wish?  He knows whats best & only gives us what will help us either now or in the future.  God is just amazing.  Anyhow, I hope everyone out there in xangaland is having a great day & God is blessing every one of you.  Talk to y'all later!

God Bless,

Andrew M  

Currently Listening WOW Hits 2006 By Various Artists see related

4 years ago today, two towers fell to the ground in NYC, claiming the lives of countless civilians, EMS, PD and PA workers, and 343 FDNY Firefighters.  may we never forget the lives lost that day.  please remember their families, friends & coworkers in your prayers.  FDNY 343-Never Forget Our Fallen Brothers & Sisters

hey everybody, guess who's still alive (again)?  lol, sorry i havent updated in 10 years.  i've just been stayin pretty busy here lately.  between WCU, BiLo's, Fire Department and Homework, seems like I don't have too much free time anymore.  at last, I finally have a few minutes for an update. 

well, i finally started WCU & from what I have seen so far, I really like it!  there's alotta people over there, like 8 or 9 thousand people, but you don't see that many every day.  i'm taking 5 classes; 4 on campus and one independent study, and I only have class on Tu & Th.  parking places are a premium over there, lol.  usually, I hafta park about a half mile away from my classes, but thats okay, I need the excercise anyhow, haha.  i've met alotta cool people over there.  emergency management is an awesome career & alotta fun to study, but great day, dr. berry could put anyone to sleep.  all we do is "discuss" stuff, which pretty much consists of talking about hurricane katrina.  and when you have that man for 3 classes a day, 1 hr & 15 mins per class, it gets kinda old hearing the same stuff over & over & over & over.  if he would actually teach us stuff instead of just discussing katrina & stuff he did while he was in nevada, the class would be 15x better.  my spanish class is my favorite so far.  our teacher is a nut.  he jumps & screams & runs around the class & keeps us laughing all the time.  this is the first time i've ever actually enjoyed spanish class!  i've also started going to the Baptist Student Union, which is alot of fun.  we sing praise & worship songs, pray, read scripture, & just have a good time in fellowship.  (we also fall & break our ankles, right kim? haha)  also, going to the WCU football games are alot of fun, if you can get over all the drunks screaming around you, lol. 

we've also been pretty busy with FD here lately.  we had a search the other day, which involved about 50 or 60 rescuers looking for a lost girl with downs syndrome in the woods near my house.  (but of course I was at work, lol).  we've had alot of medical calls, and a few wrecks since my last update.  today, we had a lady with chest pain, yesterday i stopped & helped Junaluska FD with a wreck, on my way home from work, we also had a bee sting while I was at work.  we'll probably get something else before the end of the day today.  we also got a routine ISO inspection the other day & passed, but the inspector told us we could easily have a better rating than we have now.  we set a goal to improve from a 9-S to either a 6 or 7 by this time next year.  its going to be tough, but I've got faith in our guys, we can do it.

not much has changed about me.  i'm still the same andrew y'all have known your whole life.  i'm still running every FD call I can, working at BiLo's, and I'm still going to Hemphill Baptist.  of course, i've still kept my promise about not drinking a drop (never have, never will...bank on it!!!), smoking  (bank on this one too!), or any of the other bad stuff that usually accompanies college.  however, one thing has changed about me...thats the blazer.  Squad 23 (my blazer) is temporarily out of service, so I'm stuck driving Squad 23-2 (mom's bravada) for a while.  seems like everything that could go wrong with the blazer is wrong with it, but Lord willing, Squad 23 will ride again one day!!   

i guess that pretty much wraps me up for right now, guess I'd better get to work on the 20Something research papers due this semester   hope everybody's still doing great!  talk to y'all later, God Bless!!

Andrew

...now to respond to the comments from the last entry...

Nicole: nope, contrary to popular belief, i'm still around, every now & then, haha.  no, I dont really play golf, I'm just helping organize the FD tournament.  me?  aggrivate people?  now nicole, i'm appalled...why would I do that?  lol  thanks for the prayers!  oh yeah, we passed inspection   lol well, i gotta keep FD lower than God & Church...thats gotta be #1, then family, then FD, so that kinda makes it a medium-type high, lol. 

Willett: WCU's great so far, wish you could be there.  you'd love it!  lol yeah, you know where to find me, and the JCVFD is a great place to spend free time!  you just don't know what you're missing by not joining up.  bowling rocked, but i'm sorry, i aint gonna dance on the hardwoods, lol.  so those two ENG books weren't what you needed?  well that stinks, if you need to keep 'em till the end of the semester you can, but if u want them off your hands, just holler at me one day. 

Missy: hey stranger, whats goin on?  are y'all safe down there?  i havent talked to you in forever.  seen anyone wearing a lime green vest lately? lol

Willett-lol yeah, it's time for an update, i agree.  you have been good about updating, alot better than me!  lol  how was homecoming at HSBC today?  im gonna try to come back one sunday.

OFF: hey, sorry to hear about your loss

suprise, suprise, guess who's still alive?  i figured it was about time i gave y'all an update on life.  things have been pretty busy here lately.  i've been doing alot at the fire department, getting us ready for the big golf tournament and the ISO inspection.  of course, 75% of it all falls in my lap to accomplish, but i dont mind.  went bowling in asheville the other nite, and i actually broke 100!  i got a 113 & won the game, i was excited, lol.  other than staying around the FD & working alot at BiLo's, i havent been doing too much.  some family from ohio is in town right now & we all went to franklin today.  i had a ton of fun with my cousins.  what has everybody else been into?  i know this is a huge entry, i really don't know what else to say, lol.  WCU starts in a few days, so just keep praying for me.  it's gonna be a new experience, of course i'm a little nervous but i know it's all gonna be okay.  well y'all, if you'll leave me some questions & comments, i might just update pretty soon & the more, the longer, haha.  hope y'all have a good day/nite & i'll talk to y'all later.

God Bless,

Andrew M.

hey y'all, guess its time for an update huh? lol  umm, where do i start.  guess i'll start with todays activities.  today i woke up about 9:45, got online for a little while & talked to a few people.  not much happened up until around 2:00.  i was just thinking "man, i probably won't get a call until i'm on my way to work around 4:30" when the scanner said "Medic 5, Station 23, standby for dispatch (>>>) Drive.  (Hippaa Reg's...dumb, i know, lol).  i hurridly got ready & tore out of the house like crazy because its the first call i've got to run in the blazer in quite some time!  well, right as i was pulling out of the driveway "Medic 3, Station 23, standby for dispatch (<<<<<< <<<<<) Lane"  well, that just put me in a bind and a half, lol.  both of them were still in front of me, so i continued on.  i called EOC on the radio twice & asked which call to go to, since i was the only one responding.  one was a sick child, the other was a possible stroke.  luckily, one of the captains heard the calls (thank goodness!!) & he took the sick child.  i went to the station & took Tk-2304 to the stroke victim.  wasn't too bad of a call, but it was hard getting the patient into the ambulance.  after all that was over, i took the truck back to the station & the other call was already cleared up.  i just came back home & got ready for work.  i worked 5-11 tonite & suprisingly it wasn't too busy.  it seems like everybody went to that kenny chesney concert down at the BiLo center, except me! (i had to be at the REAL BiLo's, lol.)  that pretty much wraps today up.

yesterday, i worked pretty much all day.  after i got off, i met the rest of the church at the Brian Center to sing for the residents.  then i went down to the FD for a while & watched a little TV with some other firefighters.  thats about it for yesterday.

day before yesterday...tuesday, thats it.  tuesday i woke up around 7 oclock for WCU orientation!  i was excited about going, but just as i suspected, i knew hardly anybody over there, lol.  after much negotiating & a walk all the way across campus, i finally got my schedule for the fall!  i'm only going to be on WCU campus two days a week...tuesday & thursday. :-/  i was hoping to be on campus a little more than that!  i have class from 09:00-15:30 (3:30) straight, with no breaks.  all of you who i promised to eat lunch with, we'll either have to make that a late lunch...around 5 or so?  i still wanna do stuff with y'all on the two days i'm there though!  i have three emergency management classes, one spanish class, and an independent study emergency management class.  after i finally got all that good WCU stuff over & done with until the fall, i went on a search for the Cullowhee FD main station.  i'd never seen it & didn't have a picture of it for the WNC Fire Pics albums, so i figured, why not?  i finally found it on the road across from the main entrance to campus.  pretty nice station they got up there!  got two pictures of the station, but nobody was there to let me get pictures of the trucks.  oh well, i've got 2 years to catch somebody there to pull the trucks out.  after getting the pics, i came back to my station for a few minutes.  since nothing was happening, i left & went on to High Street Bapt. to meet Josh's family.  The church was going to the tourists game, so their family invited me to ride with them.  It was a good game, but the tourists lost 6-7 to the augusta greenjackets.  after the game, all the youth from church went down & sat on the field to watch the post-game fireworks.  they must have spent a million dollars on all the fireworks they shot off.  they went off for at least a half hour.  the fireworks defenitely made up for them not winning the game.  that wraps tuesday up.

monday, what happened monday?  ohh yeah, i remember now.  i worked from 12-6 on monday, but luckily, they let me go at 5!  i didnt feel that great at work on monday, so i gladly accepted the invitation to leave an hour early!  after i got off, i went to lake junaluska & watched the fireworks with a few friends, then came back home.  nothing too exciting, lol.

sunday, was the Lord's day!  sunday morning, i woke up a little late & was almost 20 minutes late to sunday school.  i felt awful walking in that late.  the service sunday morning was great!  Rev. Chris preached about Living the Victory that we have in Christ.  it was a really encouraging message that helped me alot.  alot of times, we need to be reminded that Christ has already won the victory.  Satan may try & get us down in the dumps, but all we have to do is claim the Victory that Christ already won & it reminds Satan that he's been defeated!  after church, i came back home & didnt really do much of anything.  my little godbrother was here & he about drove me crazy, lol.  he's 6, and he just looooves my drum set.  needless to say, by the time he left i had a busting headache.  sunday nite at church, we studied in Daniel again.  after church, once again, i just came home & didnt do much of anything, lol.

saturday, i worked umm i forget what i worked last saturday, but i remember it was really busy, lol.  i got home about 5 or so, and we had a big 4th of July cookout.  we invited alot of family, Rev. Chris & his family, & family friends over to eat with us.  we just ate steak, then sat around the campfire & talked for a while. 

friday, i worked something on friday too, but i forget, lol.  friday & saturday of last week were just nightmares.  we were so slammed at BiLo's due to everyone having 4th of July cookouts.  what really aggrivates/saddens me is when i see people buying alcohol.  as you all know, i've never drank a drop & never will (hold me to that promise!!), but i also don't want anybody else to either.  people, look around.  alot of the broken homes in this world today start with alcohol.  after reading what the Bible has to say about alcohol, & seeing all the problems it causes in families, i've defenitely made up my mind to keep myself & my future family away from this awful substance at all costs.  it also makes me so glad to have grown up in a Christian home.  my parents don't drink either, & they've raised me in Church.  i'm so thankful to them for raising me right, even though i don't tell them that enough.  but, being raised up in a Christian home isn't what's getting me to Heaven.  it took me making a personal decision to ask Jesus into my heart.  i made that decision a few years ago & i'm happy to be a Christian on my way to heaven!  have you ever thought what heaven will be like?  i've always sorta imagined it was a biiiig white room, with a huge praise & worship band on one side (with me playing drums of course), angels on the other side, & Jesus in the center.  some people might cry tears of joy, some people might shout & cry out, some people might fall on their knees & hide their face, some people might dance, some people might just stand & look.  then the streets of heaven...transparent gold, with all kinds of jewels in the walls & gates.  wow, it's gonna be awesome!!  oh well, i'll leave you all with some lyrics to think about.  hope you all have a great nite/day & i'll talk to you later!

God Bless,

Andrew

I can only imagine
What it will be like
When I walk
By Your side
I can only imagine
What my eyes will see
When Your face
Is before me
I can only imagine

{Chorus}:
Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel
Will I dance for You Jesus or in awe of You be still
Will I stand in Your presence or to my knees will I fall
Will I sing hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all
I can only imagine

I can only imagine
When that day comes
And I find myself
Standing in the Son
I can only imagine
When all I will do
Is forever
Forever worship You
I can only imagine

Currently Listening Almost There By MercyMe, Mercy Me I Can Only Imagine see related

hey everybody, hows it goin?  i guess this'll hafta be a monday-tuesday-wednesday-thursday update, lol.

MONDAY-monday wasn't a terribly important day.  starting off, i had to go to the employment place & help mom try to find a job.  no luck so far, but God's got plans for her, I know it. then i had to go get my immunizations record for WCU.  i figured i'd have to have a shot or two, but the lady never did a thing but write my records out!  i was so relieved.  don't EVER tell me God doesn't listen, because He knows how I am around needles, lol.  (Thank You Jesus for no shots!!)  Me, mom & uncle bruce ate dinner at Big Mtn. BBQ in hazelwood.  if you haven't ate there, its awesome!  some of the best bbq around!  then i just came back home & went to the FD.  no calls at all on monday, it was quiet.  at the meeting, we all piled in the trucks & put up address number signs in all the trailer parks.  half the trailers didnt have numbers on them, so we just took it upon ourself (with help from Haywood 911 Addressing) to put number signs at each trailer in trailer parks in our district. between about 20 firefighters on 5 trucks, we got done with what we had in an hour & a half.  we ran out of signs, so we've gotta order more, lol.  sometime this week, we're gonna paint big H's on the road where our hydrants are located.  thats about all the events for monday.

TUESDAY-tuesday i worked from 9-4 at BiLo's.  it was pretty slow in there tuesday, thank goodness.  after i got off, i took my blazer to uncle bruces house so he could change the grill & the bumper on it.  then i took it to cove creek to get it inspected.  knowin the blazer, it decides to overheat on the way home & its up to 240* by the time i got it back to uncle bruce's house.  it's actually still over there because its still messed up, lol.  mom's SUV was over there, so i just drove it back home.  tuesday was pretty uneventful, lol.

WEDNESDAY-wednesday, i worked from 12-7 at BiLo's.  it was one of the busiest days we've had in a long time.  we were absolutely slammed!  understaffed & busy is always a great combo!  after i got off, i went to Dalton's & bought Jeremy Camp's new CD "Restored."  thats an awesome CD if you havent listened to it!  i left there & drove straight to church.  the door was locked, so i unlocked it & saw everyone on their knees in the front.  i kinda wondered for a second then the preacher said "come on in Andrew, little Josey just got saved!"  i was so excited!  someone getting saved isn't just a routine thing, its something to get excited about!!  it was so great!  thats one more little kid going to Heaven!  after church service was over, i took all the little kids outside to play ball & catch lightning bugs after it got darker.  we had alot of fun out there running around the field.  then i just came back home & worked on my fire truck album for the rest of the nite.

THURSDAY-today i worked from 10-5 and wow, we were about 95% as busy as we were yesterday!  it was awful!  after i got off, i was sitting outside on the benches talkin to some other people that work there when the phone rang.  it was mom wanting me to come back inside the store, her & nanny were shopping & needed my help.  well, what they didnt tell me was that after helping them throughout the whole store, i had to carry half the groceries home in my (well, moms, since im drivin hers right now) SUV.  that prevented me from answering one medical call, but plenty of others answered it.  on the way home, mom & nanny drove up beside me & kept pointing backwards.  dumb me had no idea what they were talking about until i look back & realize the back lid of her SUV was up!  it had come unlatched on the way out russ avenue & was sticking up!  i pulled over & fixed that pretty easily.  got home, carried the groceries in because dad was working at Church & mom & nanny were still on the way.  right after i started eating supper, the pager went off again.  chest pain call at the exact same place the other call earlier was!  the guy had no pulse, and was about to go into cardiac arrest.  it was a load & go type of call where the ambulance is loaded & gone in about 10 minutes tops.  after that, i've just been hanging around here all nite.  maybe we'll get some more excitement in a little while! 

"The reason why I stand
The answer lies in You
You hung to make me strong
Though my praise was few
When I fall I bring your name down
But I have found in You
A heart that bleeds forgiveness
Replacing all these thoughts of painful memories
But I know that your response will always be

I'll take you back always
Even when your fighting is over now
I'll take you back always
Even when the pain is coming through
I'll take you back

You satisfy this cry
Of what I'm looking for
And I'll take all I can
And lay it down before
The throne of endless grace now that radiates what's true
I'm in the only place that
Erases all these faults
That have over taken me
But I know that Your response will always be

I'll take you back always
Even when your fighting is over now
I'll take you back always
Even when the pain is coming through
I'll take you back

I can only speak with a grateful heart
As I'm pierced by this gift of Your love
I will always bring an offering
I can never thank You enough

You take me back always
Even when my fighting is over now
You take me back always
Even when my pain is coming through
You take me back"

-"Take You Back" by Jeremy Camp

God Bless,

Andrew

Currently Listening Restored By Jeremy Camp see related